


by chasing the sun

by playingbloodyknuckles



Category: Foreign exchange (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-01-29 22:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12640845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/playingbloodyknuckles/pseuds/playingbloodyknuckles
Summary: His accent echoes in her ears, her name sounds different in his mouth, like he is chewing it, and sometimes, like he wants to say something different. He says her name and she knows she is going to miss him.She is going to miss Brett like she’s never missed anyone before.If she closes her eyes, she can see the bright light of Australia, and Brett at her side, smiling and resplendent under the sun that never shines in Galway.





	1. we try to stay young by chasing the sun

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if anyone remembers this tv show, but i do. And it's on youtube, so i've been binge watching it while i procrastinate. This is a flashback to my childhood, my ten-year old self is screaming "fuck you, they should have ended up together in that second season that never aired".  
> (Sorry about my awful english, if anyone is reading, this is just for my own enjoyment really).

“Well, we are going to see each other in a few months, right?” Brett says, shrugging. Hannah shoots a look at him, he looks tired, and she is not surprised, after all the nights without sleeping, trying to see as much of Ireland and Australia they can before Hannah’s summer break. 

“Of course, it’s only two months or so” she says, but neither looks convinced and they don’t try to move out of the entrance of the school. 

Brett’s grey eyes seem lackluster to her, but she doesn’t know why, but when she thinks about it her stomach sinks. She feels the need to put her hand in his cheek for a moment, but she can’t conjure up the courage.

“You’re gonna call me, right?” he asks, and Hannah can’t help but smile weakly and nod.

“Of course”

Miss Murphy appears behind him, with her arms crossed, and she looks at them before reprimanding her.

"Hannah, why are you still here? Your father must be waiting for you." 

Hannah hurries to collect her suitcases from the floor, and to answer the teacher that yes, she is leaving right now. Miss Murphy turns around, still looking at them a little suspiciously.

“Well” she says, and really wants Brett to hug her. She is going to miss him so much.

“Well” he repeats, and shrugs, a little nervous. “I’m gonna miss you”

Hannah feels the warm in her cheeks, and it’s a similar sensation as to when she gets too close to the fire of the chimney. 

“I mean, come back soon” he adds, and he looks a little jumpy, a little melancholic. “We still have a lot to see in Ireland”

“And in Australia” 

Brett nods, and his grin shines for a second, before fading to a weak smile. Hannah grabs the suitcases and smiles at him, but she can’t make it look genuine as much as she tries.

“See you soon, Brett”

“See you soon, Hannah”

While she walks the path to her father's car, she can not help looking back. Brett waves at her, awkwardly, and she waves back. She feels like she's forgotten something and can't remember what exactly. 

She is going to miss the sensation of crossing the portal, which feels like pure magic and always leaves her feeling a little tickling in her limbs that she can still imagine if she closes her eyes. She is also going to miss the beaches of white sand, the feeling of swimming in the warm, crystalline waters, the sun that seems to always shine in Perth.

She is going to miss Brett. His way of always getting them into trouble, that then she has to get them out of. How they can spend hours just talking, Brett at her side, gesticulating with his hands, trying to explain her how to really surf. His breathy laugh when they have to run to the portal to get on time to Ireland.

She is going to miss the way he is always there, the moments when they can relax at the beach, comfortable without talking, just reading while he cleans his surf board. 

His accent echoes in her ears, her name sounds different in his mouth, like he is chewing it, and sometimes, like he wants to say something different. He says her name and she knows she is going to miss him. 

She is going to miss Brett like she’s never missed anyone before.  
If she closes her eyes, she can see the bright light of Australia, and Brett at her side, smiling and resplendent in the sun that never shines in Galway.


	2. All the complicated boys and girls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I don't even know what's this.  
> (Again, English is not my first language, this is just for practice)

Boys like him belong to the sun, the light, the warm. Boys like Brett, who have smiles made of marble and scorching heat, who bring the sand and the salt in his hardened hands, who have skin that looks like liquid gold against his argent eyes.

Boys like him don’t belong in rainy Ireland, where skies are grey and a blue so deep that is nearly black and everything seems dull. He looks out of place, with his yellow shirt and his tattered jacket, leaning on the wall of the old school. Hannah expects the clouds to dissipate like smoke above his head, so he can be illuminated by the sun that seems to follow him everywhere, but it doesn’t happen. He smiles at her, and she feels all the warm of the Australian sun deep in her stomach. 

“Hey, do you have a lot of work to do?” he asks her, and he looks so hopeful, so enthusiastic, that she can’t say no to whatever he is going to propose.

“No, right now I’m free” she answers. And she doesn’t know what he is going to ask to do but she is going to say yes, she already knows that. And they are probably going to end up running for their lives, like always.  
Brett smiles widely, and his eyes look like lead, shine like a lake under the sun, and Hannah can only smile back.

“Wanna go to Perth for a bit?” he asks, and he looks like he is sharing a secret, like he is saying a code word to enter a clandestine place. 

She really wants to say yes, go to the beach, Brett being his reckless self at her side, under the warm.  
But she also wants to have him here for a little longer, in cloudy Ireland, where he shines without the help of the sun. It’s different when he is in Ireland.

When he is here, it’s more dangerous, there’s a lot more people that can find out. The thought of Mrs Murphy finding out makes her nearly miss a beat, feel the pounding in her ears.  
That only makes it feel better, Hannah have always liked a little risk.

But he follows Brett to the portal, because Australia has felt special since the moment she set a foot on that basement.

Brett smiles before crossing the portal, and she looks at that old room in Ireland one last time and follows him.

There’s a place made for leaving and a place for staying. And sometimes it gets difficult to know which one is each.

The tingling feeling she always feel after crossing the portal doesn’t leave her until they arrive at the beach. Brett starts running, shouting something about a racing her –and winning-, and Hannah can only follow him screaming that is not fair that he got an early start; feeling the sun-warmed sand in the sole of her feet even though the sun has already set in Perth. Brett stops when they are close to the water, and sits in the sand, breathing heavily. 

She looks at him, and she sees him like it’s the first time. Brett, luminous and playful, insolent and sharp, boy and man. Everything Hannah should hate, or used to hate, and everything she wants now.  
Summer nights in Perth feel like this. Illicit, and boiling with want and feelings she’s never felt before, everything that makes the world go round.  
*  
They’ve been walking the line between awake and sleep so much that everything feels like a dream now. The sky –pink, orange, mallow- is filled with an inexplicable electric energy and Brett can only try and pretend he wasn’t looking at her when their eyes meet.

The sand trickles between his fingers, which ache to touch her. Her forehead, her cheek, her neck. Her skin –pale, and bright, and full of freckles- seems to wait for him, but he can’t conjure the courage to reach out to her.

In this warm night, moonlit, touching her would feel like a sin. But Brett has never been religious.

He had felt flashes of this –want, need, something else entirely– before, but he’d kept walking away from it. Now, it seems impossible to overlook, to forget the urge, the longing that seems to eat him up.  
Every second that passes is torture, eternal damnation for his imaginary immorality. 

Hannah is explaining him something about his father, and Brett really wants to listen –she barely talks about her family, and he really cares- but the moon is shining in her face, and she looks stunning in the dark.

“Brett, are you listening to me?” she says, raising her eyebrows.

“What, yeah, of course” he answers, but he knows she doesn’t believe him. It’s so dark he only can see her because of the moon and because they are really close –his thighs touching-, and it seems like she is smiling at him, but he is no sure. A smile or a trick of the lights that illuminate only half her face, he doesn’t know.

Brett knows he looks at her with both worship and want in his gaze. And he can only hope that it’s so dark she doesn’t see it. The sand is still warm, and Hanna’s voice sounds like honey in his ears, golden and thick with accent.

It’s dark night in Perth, but they still have the day in Ireland. He doesn’t ask, but he is sure Hannah is thinking the same thing.

With the portal, it feels like they are reusing time, again and again. They live a day in Ireland and repeat it in Australia later. So sometimes it feels like things have already happened and not happened yet.

So there are always words left unsaid, things left undone.

Eventually, they will catch up.


End file.
